Amazing. I've always known about this, but I've never heard of anyone actually being called on it before unless they were releasing code that was directly relevant to their job. Rational companies know that trying to enforce this will just piss off their employees.

Assuming you have a good rep at this company, are they really willing to risk losing you to stop you from doing this? It sounds like one of those lawyer-driven things that the people who actually appreciate your work there would not stand for if they knew about it.

Anyway, I think you can find much more open source friendly jobs right here in NY. I interviewed at a couple of places that did lots of perl and were well aware of the relationship their employees have with the rest of the perl community.

The only (other) time I have heard of this being enforced is in a totally unrelated venue. The rumor's behind why Tim Burton chose Disney/Mirmax to release "A Nightmare Before Christmas" is that he came up with the story idea while he was an animator at Disney.

This is also supposedly the reason why HP had first crack at the original Apple, but turned it down. Wozniac had a clause in his contract.

This is the standard clause for professional creative development, and is one reason why at a certain level most creative professionals become independant contractors.

Ada Lovelace for the palindrome
Albert Einstein for having smelly feet
Alfred Nobel for his contribution to battlefield science
Burkhard Heim for providing the missing link between science and mysticism
Claude Shannnon for riding a unicycle at night at MIT
Donald Knuth for being such a great organist
Edward Teller for being the template for Dr. Strangelove
Edwin Hubble for pretending to be a pipe-smoking English gentleman
Erwin Schrödinger for cruelty to cats
Hedy Lamarr for weaponizing pianos
Hugh Everett for immortality, especially for cats
Isaac Newton for his occult studies
Kikunae Ikeda for discovering the secrets of soy sauce
Larry Wall for his website
Louis Camille Maillard for discovering why steaks taste good
Marie Curie for the shiny stuff
Nikola Tesla for the cool cars
Paul Dirac for speaking one word per hour when socializing
Richard Feynman for his bongo skills
Robert Oppenheimer for his in-depth knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita
Rusi P Taleyarkhan for Cold Fusion
Sigmund Freud for his Ménage ā trois
Theodor W Adorno for his contribution to the reception of jazz
Wilhelm Röntgen for the foundations of body scanners
Yulii Borisovich Khariton for the Tsar Bomba
Other (please explain why)